AGP Tearing.

[N8]

EPoX's 8K3A has an early 2312 BIOS that has great performance but won't let ya get ur FSB up too high without great memory. The max I was able to run my Samsung DIMM with this BIOS was 185MHz, 3v, most aggressive timings.

I noticed over at AOA forums that a new 2612 BIOS is out and since I wanted to do some BIOS tinkering anyway, I thought I'd play with it. The highest I could boot into windows with even least aggressive timings with the 2312 was 195MHz FSB. Well, I loaded the 2612 today and was just playing around so I set the vmem to 3v and gave a shot at how high I could go and get into windows 2k. I reached 220MHz FSB and started to get some strange things on my screen and I'm wondering what it might be. First I assumed it must be AGP tearing as I keep hearing of this at high FSB's on KT333 boards but I'm a little confused.

I swear I've seen WCPUID screenshots showing AGP tearing...and what I saw in windows(and outside of windows) appears to be different. Perhaps I am wrong as I am a newbie when it comes to FSB's over 200MHz :) But have a look at this pic:
http://roadrage.sports-gaming.com/slo/teamslo/imup/n8agptearing.gif

This is nothing like what that screen looked like in windows when I snapped the pic :)
The colors were all off and it looked horrible :D

Is this AGP tearing? Am I wrong in thinking that AGP tearing shows up in screenshots as well? Thx for any info.

[Chong345]

what are your scores like with that bios? (sandra, 3dmark)
I use the 23.13 right now too but I am stuck at 189 at most agrressive settings. I wanna go higher but can't so I'm wondering if I switch will I be able to go higher or if my ram is giving out.

[N8]

Chong,
I have yet to even run 3dmark with this BIOS. I know what my max score is with the 2312 so I will see if I can top that with this BIOS at a higher FSB. I will let you know :)

[Chong345]

thanks, I feel that my score could be higher but maybe I'm missing something? http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=3704113
my card was oc'ed to 324/755 with riva, so that might not be the exact oc. Anway check it out and tell me what ya think and what do you think of my score. I was using 23.12 to get it.

[N8]

This is a good score you have. Mine is some 400 points short of yours. You're about 30mhz behind me on CPU speed, 4MHz faster than me on FSB, ur card core is 8MHz below mine, but your card memory is about 125MHz faster than mine. So, my guess is yours is a good score for your hardware :)

[Chong345]

I dunno, what's left to do without being able to oc vid card more. I have a crys. orb. and its stuck on there pretty good becauseI had to use AS3 Adhesive (pins don't match holes). So now I'm kinda stuck with it.

[N8]

Can anyone comment on the original topic in this thread? :)

[NorthernYankee]

Well to give you a roundabout answer Epox has never given an official reason for the AGP tearing as it is in an overclocked state. But it has been shown that Actively cooling the NB will help you to raise the FSB without the tearing but maybe only 3 or 4 mhz. And so far they have not come out with a BIOS to fix this.

--NY

[N8]

Thx NY.

My question is not really why this is happening. Rather, is what I'm experiencing indeed AGP tearing. Like I stated above, I thought that AGP tearing would show up on a screenshot like in my WCPUID screen above. What you see in that image is not at all what I saw in windows. The screen was in very odd(sorta high-contrast) colors. Yet this did not show when I took the screenshot. So, is this AGP tearing?

[N8]

Chong,

you might want to check my BIOS comparison thread in this very forum :)

[DaGooch]

Well, I am not sure if I am getting the same thing as you are but our chipsets are the same and there is artifacts during bootup if I select a FSB anything higher than 192. It's really strange looking with various colors and windig symbols all over the screen until the Highpoint controller screen comes up.

[N8]

DaGoochMeister,

Sounds very similar outside of windows for me at 210fsb+. Its 215+ where I get the change in windows colors...odd looking indeed :)

[Chong345]

I get the same at boot up but only above 200fsb. Then in windows its cool but I have never tried it at 220.

[SKATAN]

[8]


have you tryed using a decent heatsink and fan to cool the chipset and see if the thearrin vanishes?


the standart heatsink is doing an incredibly poor job

[N8]

Skatan,

Yes, thx for the suggestion but I've put an Alpha Z 45MM heatsink on there and a Sunon 40mm fan. I believe it was u that I saw post elsewhere that the stock heatsink was not glued on so well, hence the heatsink feeling cool when the chipset was actually not so. This was the case with my board as well. The heatsink was very cool untill I removed it and attached this alpha heatsink with some AATE :)

[SKATAN]

that´s probably why youre reaching 220

[N8]

If I could run 220 w/o tearing I think I'd be in love with this 2612, lol. Tearing is no good for me as 3dmark is my game :)

[Chong345]

when you ran it at 220 did you bench at all with sandra. What were your scores if so?

[N8]

no i didnt bench it, but i will :)

i'm sure they're not great as the timings were set to most relaxed.

[Chong345]

hmmm. What about at most agressive what was the higest fsb possible. With the 25.08 I could go over 200 and get into windows. I never checked for stability cause the tearing issue.

[Marci]

I get the same symbol character set displayed all over the screen when I hit 200FSB +. When I put my Crys Orb on my Radeon8500, I put the stock Radeon Heatsink onto my northbridge, in the theory that if that sink was designed to cool a gpu running at 550mhz it should easily cope with a northbridge at 200fsb... apparently not! next plan is to find an old FOP38 or similar and a dremel and make one... preferably V shaped so bottom of V is flattened and on the northbridge, then I cna leave a 60mm delta attached to top of V to provide immense northbridge cooling. Only problem is lack of room between the 80mm on the back of my radeon and my alpha pal.

Soon as I go water all my probs WILL be solved... *hands clasped, looking to the skies*

[Chong345]

lol, I'm hoping to get a mx-eva3 soon